Doggydog123579 t1_j16si0g wrote on December 22, 2022 at 2:08 AM

Reply to comment by toodroot in The European Vega-C rocket was lost shortly after lift-off from French Guiana on Tuesday with two Airbus satellites on board by DoremusJessup

Ok, let me start over. > They are so reliable that it's impossible

This part cant be proven without more flights. The Space Shuttle was supposed to be super reliable and had 2 failures in 135 flights, which is comparable to Ariane 5 or Falcon 9. However we know the shuttle wasnt actually reliable, but this was only learned after the fact. You cant argue reliablity with any credability unless you have a large enough data set, which we do not.

So, the only data we do have is the rockets flight record and any discoveries made during it. The current data supports the Falcon 9 and Ariane 5 being reliable, but its not currently enough to argue they actually are that reliable.

So, other then using what we already have, how are you supposed to compare launch vehicles reliability?

toodroot t1_j16t6fp wrote on December 22, 2022 at 2:14 AM

You're arguing about something I didn't say or mean. The entire sentence is what I meant. I'm not calling any rocket "reliable" in an absolute sense.